The present invention is directed to improved modes of utilization of the programmable resolution scanning camera disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/117,731 filed Apr. 29, 2005. The invention described therein in one embodiment provided a system for isolating digital data representative of portions of a field of view. The system includes an array of sensor cells adapted to provide digital representations corresponding to at least a portion of the field of view, and a selector adapted to isolate a non-uniformly distributed subset of the digital representations provided by the array. A buffer is provided for holding the isolated digital representations. The system may have an asymmetric distribution of active pixels in a frame, and the distribution of active pixels in a frame may be non-contiguous and/or programmable.
In other aspects the system according to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/117,731 provided for isolating digital data representative of parts of a field of view that change over time. The system includes an array of sensor cells which provide a plurality of digital representations corresponding to at least a portion of the field of view at a given moment in time and a selector for isolating a non-uniformly distributed subset of the plurality of the digital representations provided by the array at a given moment in time, the isolation being performed based upon a set of values programmed in a programmable lookup table.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/117,731 also disclosed a method of acquiring a digital image with a non-uniform resolution, including the steps of providing an array having uniformly spaced photoelectric sensor cells, exposing the array, causing the array to provide a digital representation for each of the uniformly spaced photoelectric sensor cells, and selecting from a first region of the array a first subset of the digital representations for the sensor cells within the first region, the first subset having a first average resolution over the first region that is less than the maximum resolution. A second subset of the digital representations for the sensor cells within a second region of the array is then selected, the second subset having a second average resolution over the second region.